Tuesday Painting Class with Kathleen Kalinowski

Displayed in Dominican Center's Art Gallery are the following artists from the Grand Valley Artists Tuesday painting class with Kathleen Kalinowski.

 

Laurena Alflen, OP

Laurena Alflen, OP, is a musician turned painter. She works primarily in pastel and occasionally in watercolor. Sister Laurena bases her art largely on photographs she has taken. Scenes of nature, religious subjects, and architecture from Grand Rapids and other travels draw inspiration. Sister Laurena is an active member of the Dominican Institute for the Arts and Grand Valley Artists. She has entered her art in Artprize as well as participated in several exhibits around West Michigan. Many of Sr. Laurena’s paintings are for sale. For more information, please contact Sr. Laurena Alflen at lalflen@grdominicans.org.

 

Pam Brickey

Pam loves being outdoors and is constantly in awe of God’s amazing creation. This is the foundation for her inspiration to create. Pam so wants to share the beauty she experiences in the landscape so that others may hopefully see the joy she sees in the everyday. God has blessed Pam with a talent and she feels so thankful to be in Kathleen Kalinowski’s class with so many other talented artists. Pam has been an oil painter for several years after many years of acrylic painting. Her hope is that she has captured with her artwork only a small slice of the wonder and majesty that always surrounds us.

 

Jean Clayson

Jean Clayson’s artistic journey in painting began when she was a student at Michigan State University where she graduated with a B.A. degree in Art Education with an emphasis in painting. After graduation, she was employed by the Comstock Park Public School system, retiring in 2008 after working 37 years in the secondary art education department. After retirement, her interests in oil painting were rekindled and for the past several years she has been a member of Kathleen Kalinowski’s painting group. Kathleen’s expertise and guidance have greatly developed her technical, aesthetic, and conceptual approaches related to painting. Her current concentration is on landscape art and occasional still-life paintings.

 

Bill Darooge

Bill is a retired businessman who began painting about two years ago. He is a life-long outdoor enthusiast who enjoys painting memorable moments of his many adventures in our natural world. As a painter, he is learning to see color, texture, and light in an entirely new way, which makes walking in the woods or just looking at a passing cloud all the more interesting and enjoyable.

 

Linda Doering

As Linda thinks about some of the simple pleasures in life, she realizes how important the visual arts are to me. Color - and design in particular - have a great impact on Linda's daily life, whether she is arranging flowers, redesigning a room, or selecting colors for her paint palette. In most cases, the emotional response color evokes brings her great joy.

Since Linda's retirement, she has dedicated more time to painting, first in acrylics and more recently in oils. The impressionist movement has captured her interests with the soft edges that the masters used. Workshops that have promoted Impressionistic style have inspired Linda to focus more on the technical aspects of painting. Through various instructors, she was introduced to the concept of how to “see” and focus on the elements of art such as light, form, shadow, design, texture, and color in an effort to be a more sensitive painter. It is always a challenge to create meaningful art along with refining techniques.

During workshops sponsored by both nationally and internationally known artist-instructors, they have encouraged Linda's artistic interests. Kathleen Kalinowski, Elizabeth Robbins, Douglas David, Dreama Tolle Perry, and Julian Merrow-Smith are just a few who have mentored Linda. She is grateful for these opportunities and the friendships who have accompanied her on this ongoing journey.

 

Lydia Ferrigan

Lydia has always loved oil painting. One day she met Kathleen at an art fair in Ann Arbor. She is now Lydia's wonderful art instructor at Grand Valley Artists Association, where they meet weekly with other students to paint and develop skills. Their group learns and inspires each other and they enjoy sweet fellowship.

 

 

Brooks Filonow

Drawing and painting have been a part of Brooks' life since childhood. She spent many hours with a drawing book, which her grandparents gifted her. Brooks married a military pilot and spent many years in Europe where she was able to visit art museums and take classes in oils and watercolor. Always drawn to classical still life, that has been Brooks' focus. Recently, however, she discovered pastels and has been painting animal portraits. It has been very satisfying to provide long-lasting portraits of favorite family pets. Brooks looks forward to continuing to enjoy art and the wonderful artists she has met on this journey.

 

Annette Halverson

Annette once read that making art is one of the only ways you can leave home without leaving your house. Creative expression allows Annette to explore and expand her world. She paints because she is curious about the artistic process and enjoys playing with the various mediums to see what can be produced. On a more spiritual level, stopping to look at what is around Annette makes the everyday sacred. Painting allows her to capture what she treasures.

 

Sandy Huebner

Sandy has been painting in oils with Kathleen Kalinowski for five years. It has been an amazing art journey. She cannot imagine a life without art. Sandy has found her passion.

 

 

 

Kathleen Kalinowski

Kathleen Kalinowski is known for her light-filled Midwest landscape paintings with impressionistic color and brushwork. Much of her work consists of plein air painting, directly from nature, a source of reference for larger studio paintings. In the studio, she relies on her plein air experiences for decisions on concepts, design, and color. Kathleen first responds to the poetic play of light that creates contrast, or the variety of interesting shapes that will spark the inspiration for a painting. She mindfully works to portray an intimate portrait of the landscape that is both engaging and inviting. A prolific painter, her favorite subjects are close to home and in northern Michigan, including farms, orchards, streams, and the shorelines of the Great Lakes. She has been working as a professional fine artist for close to thirty years using oil and pastel as her mediums.

Kathleen is a member of the Oil Painters of America, American Women Artists, plus other art associations. She teaches both oil and pastel in ongoing classes and several workshops a year. Her award-winning work has been accepted into juried regional and national exhibitions and is part of numerous private and corporate collections.

 

Marian Lambert

After retiring a decade ago from a career in corporate America, Marian finally found time to pursue painting. She and her husband moved from Chicago to Grand Rapids nine years ago their granddaughter was born. At that time, she was lucky enough to join Kathleen Kalinowski’s painting class. Marian loves painting with oils, exploring all kinds of subject matter, whether landscapes or still-life and has even tried portraits.

 

Nancy MacLachlan

About ten years ago, after a career in nursing, Nancy took a drawing class and the instructor confirmed, “Yep, you can draw.” An artist friend taught Nancy how to add color and she was hooked. Since then, Nancy has joined a co-op gallery in Grand Haven, had her work juried into many competitions, and even won a couple of prizes over the years. Pastel is the medium Nancy prefers, primarily because she doesn’t like mixing color! Landscapes, cityscapes, florals, and portraits of her grandchildren are the subjects Nancy most loves to paint. It has been an exciting ten years discovering this new talent, five of which have been spent enjoying being part of Kathleen Kalinowski’s Tuesday art classes.

 

Gail Madura

Blessed to grow up in a home where creative expression was nurtured, Gail has always found joy and solace in art-making. She values the time she spends working in the company of other artists for the inspiration, education, and appreciation of the individual journeys they are all on.

 

 

Douglas G. McKenzie

Douglas is a retired university professor who has been afforded the opportunity to pursue his desire to create. That desire was fueled in him when as a young child, his aunt first taught him how to paint. Douglas's path toward becoming a painter has been circumscribed by a lengthy detour into academia. Today he is free to paint in watercolors, oils, and acrylics. His paintings focus primarily on landscapes, seascapes, and florals, with occasional portraits. Douglas's paintings realize the importance of light/dark contrasts and shadows, hard/soft edges of shapes, not objects. He tries to emphasize changes in values, directing the viewer to the focal point. Painting has awakened his spirit of creating, which was not found in his prior life as an academic.

 

Janice Paulson

Janice Paulson began her journey as a doll artisan in the mid-1980’s. She created porcelain dolls, exhibited across the Midwest, and taught doll-making for ten years. In the late nineties, Janice began to experiment with pastel painting. Now she paints full time in and around Spring Lake, MI.  Her favorite subject is painting water, which has earned her several awards. She is a member of Grand Valley Artists, Great Lakes Pastel Society, and paints on Tuesdays with friends under the leadership of Kathleen Kalinowski.

 

Karen Rinke

Karen has lived in different areas of Michigan all her life and is in love with our landscapes. She finds delight in creating mosaics, woodcuts, and writing icons, as well as oils. She feels so honored to be taking classes with Kathleen Kalinowski. Karen has taught children and teens at Croswell/ Lexington Community Ed, Croswell/ Lexington elementary, Assumption of BVM, Our Lady of Consolation as well as mosaic retreats at West Catholic, Sacred Heart, OLC, and Mary Queen of Apostles.

 

Barbara Schmid

Barbara traded pen strokes for paint strokes when she retired from a career in journalism. She was a golf writer in Florida and an outdoors editor in Michigan. She invites you to pause to enjoy the serenity and beauty of the natural world, revealed in her oil landscapes.

 

 

Mary Serra Veneklase

In 1972, after graduating from Aquinas College with a BFA in painting and printmaking, Mary Serra furthered her education with a certification in art education from Western Michigan University. Her teaching career and love of art lasted for the next 30 years as she worked with students in the Comstock Park School system. Now retired, she continues painting with Kathleen Kalinowski as her mentor through the Grand Valley Artists Association. Mary Serra has displayed and sold her art in various shows and galleries, most recently at the Merizon Studio. This is a return showing at Dominican Center.

 

Laura Vogelzang

Laura has created her whole life. As a child she was always drawing, coloring, and painting. As an adult, she taught art for 30 years in the public schools. She was living her dream. Laura loves our beautiful earth, and she enjoys putting down on canvas the beauty that is all around us. Laura's other interests are gardening, bicycling, and playing golf. Being outdoors is her favorite.